Carver Gym was rocking, and the Western volleyball team was on a roll against conference rival Simon Fraser. Just like old times. The Vikings took it to the visitors, taller and more experienced, turning an intangible — their home floor advantage — into something you could feel. Led by Delaney Speer, Hayli Tri, Emily Vossenkuhl, Janelle Grant and Devyn Oestreich, the Vikings surprisingly swept Simon Fraser, 3-0, in front of a Friday night, Sept. 27 crowd of locals and students welcomed back after a summer away.
Diane Flick-Williams is in her 25th season coaching Western, averaging more than 21 wins per year. Last season’s record of 14-16 was her first losing one. The Simon Fraser win on Sept. 27 gave the team its the first back-to-back victories of the season after beating Alaska-Anchorage the week before, and it felt like the possible ember to some future flame.
Western is 3-6, survivors of a six-match losing streak — four to nationally ranked teams — that included 15 lost sets in a row. For the second straight year, Flick-Williams’ 18-player roster has no seniors. For the second straight year, it’s a new world for the veteran coach.
“It’s funny to me,” she said about the unfamiliar losing. “I want to believe after this amount of time, I’ve seen it all, but I haven’t. So it just becomes a new challenge, and I love competing and figuring things out and problem-solving.”
Below all those championship banners — volleyball won 11 Great Northwest Athletic Conference titles (the last in 2021) and twice played for the NCAA Division II national championship — the temporary playing surface was being pulled up as we spoke.
Flick-Williams is embarking on a similar task: rebuilding from the ground up, and doing it the only way she knows how. Her team, with electrifying players like Grant and Vossenkuhl and Oestreich and a future that includes her redshirting freshman daughter Chayse Flick-Williams from Bellingham High, are grinding away on building serve strength, something they’ve emphasized since January; devilish tip shots and precise setting. It showed against Simon Fraser.
Better days are ahead for a program where winning was almost second nature. In the offseason, the team discussed that 12-14 record. “We made a vow not to have another season like that,” Flick-Williams said.
Last Friday gave them hope they wouldn’t.
“They are starting to realize how good they can be,” she said of her young team. “And they’re seeing their work transfer onto the court … I’m excited that they know that there’s more ahead of them. We’re just starting to tap into it.”
BY THE NUMBERS
37 – seconds left when Western women’s soccer forward Sophie Bearden Croft volleyed a game-tying goal against rival Seattle Pacific University Saturday, Sept. 28. The 1-1 tie came despite Western outshooting PSU 30-8. Going into Thursday’s game against Saint Martin’s, the Vikings are now 1-0-1 in the GNAC, 2-2-3 overall
51 – games (of 52 she started) in which junior defender Asia Hardin has played the full 90 minutes since her freshman debut in 2022. Hardin was named GNAC Player of the Week for the first time after assisting on Croft’s goal and anchoring the defense while playing all 180 minutes in the Vikings’ two-game GNAC start
7 – Viking runners finishing in the top 20 to win the women’s team title at the 50th WWU Classic (aka Bill Roe Classic), nudging NCAA regional rival Chico State by just three points in the eight-school field. Ashley Reeck led Western runners, placing 10th in a time of 21 minutes, 25.4 seconds over the 6K (3.6-mile) course at Ferndale’s Homestead Hovander Park on Sept. 28
3 – overall finish by Viking men’s senior runner Kevin McDermott, whose personal best of 24:05.4 over the 8K (4.8-mile) course helped Western finished second to Chico State in the 10-team field and earned McDermott GNAC Runner of the Week honors
26 – winning margin of strokes by nationally ranked No. 1 Colorado Christian, which shot 37 under par at the Bellingham Golf & Country Club to beat runner-up Simon Fraser and win the WWU Classic Tuesday, Oct. 1. Western, led by a sixth-place finish by Christopher Zamani in a 71-player field, tied for third with Chico State and Colorado Mesa with a 3-under 861 over 54 holes.
THIS WEEK IN VIKING HISTORY
Oct. 6, 1984 – Western quarterback Dave Peterson completes 35 of 62 passes for 430 yards to eclipse his own school record set the year before. Peterson also threw for two touchdown passes in a 37-29 loss to Pacific University in front of an estimated 1,100 spectators at Civic Field. Pacific coach Bill Conner called Peterson “the best quarterback I’ve seen in 19 years of college coaching.” Said Western coach Paul Hansen: “Our offense was much better but our defense wasn’t there today. We’d like to get them both together for a game.”
BEST BETS
Thursday, Oct. 3, noon — Men’s soccer at Western Oregon (GNAC opener), Monmouth, OR; 7 p.m. — women’s soccer vs. Saint Martin’s, Bellingham
Saturday, Oct. 5, 2 p.m. – Women’s soccer vs. Western Oregon, Bellingham
Thursday, Oct. 10, 7 p.m. – Men’s soccer vs. Northwest Nazarene, Bellingham; 7 p.m. — volleyball vs. Seattle Pacific, Bellingham
Saturday, Oct. 12, 7 p.m. – Volleyball vs. Montana State University-Billings, Bellingham
Tickets. See wwuvikings.com/Tickets or in person one hour prior to game time.
Parking. Free for sports. For volleyball, lot 19G for general audience; 9G for season ticket holders. For soccer, C lots on south campus. See the map at wwu.edu/parking.
Can’t make it? Stream it
All home games are streamed via a live and free YouTube webcast. Find links online at cascadiadaily.com.
If you have a smart TV, search for “WWU Athletics” on YouTube.
We want to hear from you
Got a WWU sports-related news tip or interesting item for this notebook, or a good story idea? We’re all ears. Send to newstips@cascadiadaily.com, subject line: WWU sports notebook
Meri-Jo Borzilleri is a freelance journalist and former 20-year sports reporter.
